An authorised arms dealer used to smuggle illegal firearms and ammunition from India and Myanmar, through arms smuggling syndicates, and sell those to various criminal groups in Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar at high prices.

Officials of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) arrested four firearms traders, including a legal arms dealer, from Dhaka’s Jatrabari area around 7:00pm on Sunday. Five firearms and 301 bullets, including bullets of AK-47 rifle, were also seized, said Asaduzzaman, chief of the DMP’s CTTC unit, at a press briefing at the DMP Media centre yesterday.

The arrestees are Md Hossain, 55, an authorised arms trader in Chattogram; Lal Tan Pankhoa, 41, headman of Saichal Pankhoa area in Rangamati; Ali Akbar, 55, and Adilur Rahman Sujan, 38, from Chattogram.

“Hossain, from his legal firearms shop, used to collect illegal arms from smugglers and sell those to criminal groups in different areas, including Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar, at high prices,” the CTTC chief said.

The arms were also sold to criminal groups in the Chattogram Hill Tracts and Dhaka.

The seized arms and ammunition include a US-made shotgun, three pistols and a revolver made by Italy, Germany and US, and 301 rounds bullets including 10 of AK-47.

“We fear they have already sold many weapons and ammunition to various criminal groups. We also fear that the criminal groups ordered AK-47s. We are trying to find out to whom they wanted to sell AK-47 bullets. We suspect the criminal groups in the Chattogram Hill Tracts and Cox’s Bazar may have contact with them.”

Officials said Hossain is the kingpin of the illegal arms racket. He had been arrested earlier by a law enforcement agency and was in jail for long.

Nine were made accused in the case filed under the arms act with Jatrabari Police Station yesterday. Of them, five are on the run.

Hossain used to collect old unused licenses and buy firearms using them and subsequently selling those to criminals, erasing the guns’ serial numbers, Asaduzzaman said, adding that the shotgun seized from his possession was also collected using such a license.

Asaduzzaman said Lal Tan, a close associate of Hossain, used to smuggle firearms from Myanmar and India’s Mizoram.

Adilur and Ali used to meet the two other arrestees in Jatrabari to buy the seized arms and ammunition and sell those to others, he added.

“Apart from Pankhoa, Hossain used to buy firearms from some other dealers including Swapan in Dhaka and sold them to various criminal groups in Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar through Ali and Adilur.

They used to sell illegal weapons to Hamidul Haque, Abdul Mannan, Ahmed Sofa of Chattogram and Selim and Jewel of Cox’s Bazar, the official said adding that they got some names of illegal arms traders and will conduct drives to arrest them.

Asaduzzaman said, “Of course it is a threat. Such weapons may have been used to organise major crimes…,” he said.

In the past, the CTTC unit found links between legal arms dealers and illegal arms smuggling syndicates. They also found that at least 200 illegal firearms were smuggled into the country in 2018-2019.

These dealers imported the firearms legally and then sold them on the black market to criminals after removing the barcodes, officials said.

During the same period, the CTTC unit pressed charges against nine authorised arms dealers for selling illegally.